Resonator For A Voltage Controlled Oscillator And Manufacturing Method Thereof

ABSTRACT

An LC resonator for a voltage controlled oscillator comprises an inductive transmission line, input and output ports connected to the transmission line, and a capacitor interconnected in the transmission line, wherein the transmission line is grounded in at least one end portion thereof. The inductive transmission line comprises a plurality of connection ports that are capable of being connected to each other or to ground in order to tune the resonance frequency of the LC resonator from one frequency band to another, and the capacitor is a trimming capacitor in order to tune the resonance frequency of the LC resonator. Preferably, the LC resonator is formed as a microstrip or strip line structure in essentially a C or S shape on a laminate substrate.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the field of synthesizers, and more specifically the invention relates to a resonator for a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO).

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are various structures based on phase-locked loops (PLL) and direct synthesis that can be used in a base station environment to realize digital channel selection, synchronization and narrow-band filtering.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a simple integer-N PPL synthesizer structure comprising error detector, loop filter, VCO and divider blocks.

The VCO output is divided by N in the divider block and is fed back to the error detector block, which comprises a phase detector and a charge pump. The error detector block has two-phase detection input ports, one for the feedback signal from the VCO block and one for a fixed external reference signal from a crystal oscillator. The error detector block compares the signals that are input.

The error signal is given by e(s)=F _(ref) −F ₀ /N, where e(s) is error signal, F_(ref) the fixed external reference signal, and F₀/N is the VCO output signal divided by an integer N.

When e(s)=0, i.e. when the two signal input to the error detector block are equal in phase and frequency, the error will be zero and the loop is said to be in a locked condition, and F ₀ =N*F _(ref)

When e(s)≠0, i.e. when F₀≠N*F_(ref), the error detector block will drive the VCO.

The VCO is a voltage driven device and the charge pump of the error detector block is operating as a current source/sink device. The charge pump, the loop filter and the VCO form an integrator, which changes its output frequency in a direction of reducing the error signal e(s).

The VCO signal output frequency will be changed by K_(v)*ΔV, where K_(v) is the VCO sensitivity (in MHz/Volt) and ΔV is the change in VCO input voltage. The frequency adjustment procedure will be repeated until the error signal e(s) is zero, and the loop is locked.

FIG. 2 is a schematic circuit diagram of the VCO block as being comprised in the synthesizer of FIG. 1. The VCO block comprises an oscillator and a mechanism for frequency tuning, which may be achieved by tuning of a resonance frequency.

The oscillator comprises typically an active device, such as a bipolar transistor, and a resonator structure. For a LC network based resonator, the resonance occur at f₀=1/(2π(LC)^(1/2)). This means that for a fix inductance, the resonance frequency is tuned by tuning the capacitance. The mechanism for frequency tuning is thus typically realized by a varactor, such as a voltage controlled tunable capacitor or a FET voltage dependent capacitor.

The resonator structure is typically realized as an essentially L shaped microstrip inductor line connected to one or several capacitors. The circuit is formed on top of a ceramic substrate having a high dielectric constant.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A drawback of a resonator structure of the above kind is that it is expensive. The ceramic substrate is obviously a cost-limiting factor. On the other hand, a resonator structure of the above kind realized on a laminate board with low dielectric constant and higher loss tangent would have too low Q factor and occupy too much space.

A further limitation of the prior art resonator structure is that it is not very flexible, e.g. it is typically not tunable.

During production, the traditional resonator has to be laser trimmed. A drawback of the laser trimming method is that several laser trimmers are required to avoid a production bottle neck. Additionally, the prior art resonator would have been too large to fit into the required area.

It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a resonator for a voltage controlled oscillator, which is formed on a laminate substrate, but still has high Q value and occupies small area on the substrate.

It is in this respect a particular object of the invention to provide such a resonator, which is has excellent performance, is area efficient, reliable, of low cost, easy to implement, and easily trimable at production phase for tuning of the resonance frequency, e.g. to various frequency bands such as 800, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz GSM frequency bands.

It is still a further object of the invention to provide a flexible method for manufacturing a resonator for a voltage controlled oscillator, which fulfills any of the above objects.

These objects are according to the present invention attained by resonators and methods for manufacturing a resonator as claimed in the appended patent claims.

The resonator of the present invention has superior flexibility and wide frequency range tuning capability realized in a fraction of space compared to prior art structures.

Further characteristics of the invention and advantages thereof will be evident from the detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention given hereinafter and the accompanying FIGS. 1-10, which are given by way of illustration only, and are thus not limitative of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a PPL synthesizer wherein the present invention can be implemented.

FIG. 2 is a schematic circuit diagram of a voltage controlled oscillator as being comprised in the synthesizer of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are each a schematic circuit diagram of an inventive resonator according to a respective embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 5-9 are each a schematic layout realization of a resonator according to a respective embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic cross sectional view of a portion of a low cost substrate wherein a voltage controlled oscillator according to an embodiment of the invention can be implemented.

FIGS. 11 and 12 are each a module layout for a synthesizer according to a respective embodiment of the invention

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

A first embodiment of an LC resonator structure for a voltage controlled oscillator according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 3. The resonator structure is primarily, but not exclusively, intended for use in synthesizers for transmitters and receivers in GSM base stations applications.

The resonator structure includes a transmission line optionally with a small inductor interconnected in a central part thereof. A respective input/output port is connected to the transmission line on each side of the inductor. Each of the transmission line portions forms a transmission line inductance and a parasitic resistance, and is grounded in an outer end portion.

A ground plane conductor may be arranged below the resonator structure.

According to the invention, the resonator structure comprises a plurality of ports P, which may be connected to each other or to ground in order to adapt the resonator structure for a given frequency band. Further, the transmission line comprises a trimming capacitor for tuning the resonator structure to a desired frequency band.

By means of the ports connectable to each other or to ground and the trimming capacitor a great flexibility is achieved. Typically, for GSM the plurality of ports P are connected to obtain a λ/4 resonance frequency for either one of the frequency bands 800, 900, 1800, or 1900 MHz.

A second embodiment of a resonator structure for a voltage controlled oscillator according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 4. This embodiment differs from the FIG. 3 embodiment in that a varactor is interconnected in the transmission line between the trimming capacitor and ground. Further, an additional input/output port is connected to the transmission line between the trimming capacitor and the varactor.

The mentioned transmission line can be realized as a strip conductor, microstrip, embedded microstrip, or strip line conductor. Alternatively, the resonator structure is realized as a composite structure including both a microstrip and a strip line.

The microstrip or strip line part can be trimmed separately to achieve more flexibility. Electrical tuning of the structure is also possible to get additional flexibility this through a varactor diode see schematic at FIG. 4.

FIGS. 5-9 are each a schematic layout realization of a resonator according to a respective embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 shows a C-shaped microstrip or strip line conductor having two microstrip conductors to which input/output ports are connected. The input/output port conductors are connected at opposite sides of the microstrip or strip line conductor. The ends of the transmission line are grounded, one of them via a trimming capacitor. The C shape of the layout gives a compact and space saving structure. Twelve ports P are provided as an example of realization, each of which being connectable to ground and/or to some or all of the other ones of the ports. If the ports P connectable to each other, they are preferably connectable to each other, two and two, so that oppositely located ports with respect to the inner portion of the C-shaped layout are connectable to each other.

FIG. 6 shows a microstrip or strip line conductor having an S-shaped layout. In other respects the FIG. 6 embodiment is similar to the FIG. 5 embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows a structure that differs from that of FIG. 5 in that half the microstrip or strip line conductor is exchanged for a conductive patch. The end of the patch not connected to the microstrip or strip line is connected to ground via a trimming capacitor.

FIG. 8 shows a structure that differs from that of FIG. 5 in that the input/output ports are connected at the same side of the microstrip or strip line conductor.

FIG. 9, finally, shows a structure that differs from that of FIG. 5 in that the microstrip or strip line conductor has rounded corners. Four ports P are indicated. For four band GSM application, the ports P as counted from the input/output ports may be grounded to obtain resonant structures for the 1900, 1800, 900, and 800 MHz bands, respectively.

It shall generally be appreciated that the structures illustrated in FIGS. 5-9 are merely examples. Other layouts are naturally possible, even if the layouts of FIGS. 5, 8, and 9 seem to be very compact in size.

FIG. 10 is a schematic cross sectional view of a portion of a low cost substrate on which a voltage controlled oscillator according to an embodiment of the invention can be implemented.

In prior art synthesizers a high quality substrate of ceramics is used. Laminate based substrates or boards were found to not provide resonators of sufficiently high quality and/or of sufficiently small size because of low dielectric constant of the substrate.

However, by using the above described resonator, a synthesizer having a high quality resonator may be formed on a laminate substrate of a particular design, still in a miniaturized configuration.

Thus, the laminate shown in FIG. 10 comprises a core layer having a thickness a, an upper layer having a thickness b, and a bottom layer having a thickness c. Preferably, the thickness a of the core layer is at least 600 μm thick, or at least 7 times larger than the thickness b of the top layer. In a non-limiting example embodiment the thicknesses are: a=1500 μm, b=150 μm, and c=150 μm.

The core layer may be a laminate from Rogers Corporation having e.g. a dielectric constant of between 3 and 4 such as e.g. about 3.4, and having low surface roughness.

The tree layers define four component layers, numbered from top to bottom 1, 2, 3, and 4. The resonator structure is formed in layer 2, and the ground plane conductor is formed in layer 3, or alternatively in layer 4. Other components are preferably mounted on layer 1. Electrical connections between the different layers are provided in forms of electrical vias between layers 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 and 4, respectively. Some vias may naturally pass through some or all of the layers. For instance, in FIG. 10 one via is shown as extending from layer 1 to layer 4.

Further characteristics of the laminate substrate include:

-   -   Dissipation factor Df≦0.02.     -   Solder mask opening directly over resonator structure.     -   Robustness. Resonator structure in layer 2 gives a structure         that is robust in production. Contamination risks are eliminated         or reduced.     -   Electrical performance of the resonator structure can be altered         by using RLC components.     -   The inventive resonator concept may be extended to other         applications and frequency bands than those of GSM.     -   All components do not have to be assembled.     -   The resonator concept may be applied on any multi-layer board.

It shall be appreciated that a resonator structure like that of FIG. 9 measuring 3 mm times 6 mm with 1 mm wide embedded microstrip, and that is formed in a laminate substrate such as being described with reference to FIG. 10 may have a Q factor of about 40-50 for 800-900 MHz GSM frequencies.

Thus, a resonator circuit realized through an LC network of the above described kind is capable of reducing phase noise at synthesizer level of design by means of the feasible high quality factor.

The size of the resonator structure depends on the substrate parameters as dielectric constant and thickness of the substrate. The inventive resonator structure is realized on a substrate with low dielectric constant. Yet high Q value is provided simultaneously as the structure occupies very small area on the substrate.

Further, the inventive resonator structure is easily tunable for different frequency bands up to far above 1 GHz.

Manufacturing of a synthesizer module may be performed as follows.

Laminate boards or substrates, also referred to as carriers, as being disclosed with reference to FIG. 10, are pre-fabricated mounted with resonator structures, and electrical connections, conductors and isolators. Such module blanks may later be used for a number of different applications.

Then, in production IC circuits, various devices and components needed for the synthesizer operation are mounted on top of the laminate substrate, i.e. in layer 1 as described with reference to FIG. 10. Also, the ports P and the tunable capacitors of the inventive resonator structure (e.g. any of the structures disclosed in FIGS. 3-9) are connected and tuned, respectively, to achieve a suitable resonance frequency.

To this end, the ports and capacitors are accessed through openings made in the uppermost laminate layer (i.e. the laminate layer of thickness b as illustrated in FIG. 10) and aligned with the ports and capacitors. The ports may be realized as connection pads that can be connected by means of soldering components such as resistors to the pads from above. The trimming capacitors may be connected in a similar manner.

In such manner, the resonator structure is tailored in a simple and straightforward manner during production for use in a particular frequency band. The overall manufacturing process is simplified and made more efficient.

FIGS. 11 and 12 are each a module layout for a PLL based synthesizer for use in e.g. GSM base station applications according to a respective embodiment of the invention.

The FIG. 11 layout comprises four blocks: a balun/switch block, a regulator block, a PLL block and a VCO/buffer block. Each of the blocks is separated from the other by electrically conductive vias. The vias operate as Faraday cages to provide an efficient electromagnetic shielding of each of the blocks.

Particularly, the PLL, the switch, and the VCO have to be efficiently shielded from each other.

The C shaped resonator within the VCO block has two connection ports or pads R52 and R55 and two trimming capacitors C14 and C15 accessible from above. This particular synthesizer substrate module is mounted with a resonator that can be tuned to either 800 or 900 MHz GSM frequency bands (transmitting or receiving frequencies). During production, the various components of the synthesizer are mounted and connections are made. The resonator is tuned to the 900 MHZ frequency band by connecting both the connection pads R52 and R55 to ground, preferably via respective resistors. Similarly, the 800 MHz frequency band is reached by connecting only the connection pad R55 to ground. The trimming capacitors are connected or left disconnected in order to fine tune the resonance frequency of the resonator.

The FIG. 12 layout comprises five blocks. Here, the VCO and the buffer are located in different blocks. The resonator has three connection ports or pads C103, C104 and C105 and two trimming capacitors C14 and C15 accessible from above. This synthesizer substrate module is mounted with a resonator that can be tuned to either one of the 800, 900, 1800, or 1900 MHz GSM frequency bands. The resonator is tuned to the 1800-1900 MHz frequency band by connecting all the connection pads C103, C104 and C105 to ground. Resonance in the 900 MHz frequency band is achieved by connecting the connection pads C103 and C104 to ground, and resonance in the 800 MHz frequency band is achieved by connecting only the connection pad C104 to ground.

It shall be appreciated that the particular layouts shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 are merely examples. The resonator, particularly, may be tunable into other frequency bands and used in other application such as 3G, Bluetooth and WLAN applications, for instance. 

1. An LC resonator for a voltage controlled oscillator comprising: an inductive transmission line, input and output ports connected to said transmission line, and a capacitor interconnected in said transmission line, wherein said transmission line is grounded in at least one end portion thereof, characterized in that said inductive transmission line comprises a plurality of connection ports that are capable of being connected to each other or to ground in order to tune the resonance frequency of said LC resonator to a selected frequency band, and said capacitor is a trimming capacitor in order to tune the resonance frequency of said LC resonator.
 2. The LC resonator of claim 1, wherein said transmission line is realized as a strip conductor on a substrate above a ground plane conductor.
 3. The LC resonator of claim 1 or 2, wherein said transmission line has essentially the shape of a C or an S.
 4. The LC resonator of any of claims 1-3, wherein said transmission line is formed on a laminate substrate, preferably on an upper surface of a thick core layer, which has low surface roughness, and a ground plane conductor is provided directly below the transmission line on a lower surface of said core.
 5. The LC resonator of claim 4, wherein said laminate substrate includes at least one layer on each side of said transmission line.
 6. An LC resonator for a voltage controlled oscillator comprising: an inductive transmission line, input and output ports connected to said transmission line, and a capacitor interconnected in said transmission line, wherein said transmission line is grounded in at least one end portion thereof, characterized in that said inductive transmission line is formed on a laminate substrate comprising a thick core and thin laminate layers on each side of the core, wherein said inductive transmission line is provided between the core and one of the thin laminate layers, and ground plane conductor is provided so that at least said core separates said inductive transmission line and said ground plane conductor.
 7. The LC resonator of claim 6, wherein said transmission line is formed on a surface of said thick core, which has low surface roughness.
 8. The LC resonator of claim 6 or 7, wherein said core is at least 600 μm thick, or is at least seven times thicker than said one of the thin laminate layers.
 9. The LC resonator of any of claims 6-8, wherein said inductive transmission line comprises a plurality of connection ports that are capable of being connected to each other or to ground in order to tune the resonance frequency of said LC resonator to a selected frequency band, and said capacitor is trimming capacitor in order to tune the resonance frequency of said LC resonator.
 10. The LC resonator of claim 9, wherein said transmission line is realized as a microstrip, embedded microstrip, strip line, or strip conductor on a substrate.
 11. The LC resonator of claim 9 or 10, wherein said transmission line has essentially the shape of a C or an S.
 12. A method for manufacturing an LC resonator for a voltage controlled oscillator, preferably a voltage controlled oscillator comprised in a synthesizer block, comprising the steps of: providing an inductive transmission line, providing input and output ports connected to said transmission line, and providing a capacitor interconnected in said transmission line, wherein said transmission line is grounded in at least one end portion thereof, characterized by the steps of: providing said inductive transmission line with a plurality of connection ports that are capable of being connected to each other or to ground in order to tune the resonance frequency of said LC resonator to a selected frequency band, and providing said capacitor with a trimming capability in order to tune the resonance frequency of said LC resonator to thereby provide a pre-fabricated LC resonator.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein a frequency band for operation of said LC resonator is selected, said connection ports are connected to tune the resonance frequency of said LC resonator to said selected frequency band, and said capacitor is tuned to the selected frequency band to thereby produce a particular LC resonator for the selected frequency band.
 14. The method of claim 12 or 13, wherein the LC resonator id formed within a laminate substrate. 